On Thursday, Wesfarmers, the country’s biggest company by sales, said it experienced shelf price deflation of 0.5 percent in the three-month period, less than in previous quarters, because of “supply-driven fresh produce inflation”.

“It is necessary that we continue to proactively invest in the customer offer throughout this period of lower growth and increased competition to ensure we maintain our market leading customer offer,” Coles Managing Director John Durkan said in the statement.

For the year to date, Coles food and liquor sales, which account for about 40 percent of Wesfarmers’ revenue, were up 1.9 percent. It offered no guidance for the full financial year.

It did not publish profit for Coles in the quarterly update. In February, Wesfarmers said Coles earnings fell 6.8 percent for the first half of the year.

Wesfarmers said coal sales from its Curragh mine in Queensland would hit the lower end of a guidance range between 8 and 8.5 million tonnes, owing to damage to rail lines caused by Cyclone Debbie.